


Dauntless Haven

by simpfortsukki



Series: Dauntless Haven [1]
Category: Divergent - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, I suck at tags, M/M, Romance, Whump, first fanfic, sexual/physical abuse in first chapter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:21:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27888223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simpfortsukki/pseuds/simpfortsukki
Summary: When Hope Starks chooses Dauntless over Amity to get away from her abusive family, who knows what she'll find there? Will Dauntless be the safe haven she has always longed for, or will her endless cycle of tyranny continue to reign?Divergent fanfic taking place in Four's year. Some OCs, some characters originally in the books.
Series: Dauntless Haven [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2042035





	1. The Love Club

**Author's Note:**

> hey! so I started writing this fic a while ago and picked it up recently. it's not the BEST, but i just thought i'd share it and i hope you guys like it! 
> 
> TW: physical abuse in this chapter only, i'll mark it so you can skip over it but it IS referenced again a few times in the later chapter.

Me and my mother always wake up early so we can talk and be alone without my father and brother. She’ll come into my room, we’ll talk about how we are, and I’ll braid her hair. No one is too concerned about looks in Amity, but it’s fun for us. My mom’s only 34, and had my brother, Alex, when she was 16, and me at 18. I look at my mom and see how similar we are; we have the same wavy blonde hair, same big, light brown doe eyes, and same freckles along our noses and cheeks.

“So, are you excited for today?” Her sweet voice says quietly. I laugh.

“Not really. I mean, it’s not like I’m choosing which faction I’ll be in. It’s just a test.” Later today was the aptitude test. I’d be taking it with the rest of the 16 year olds in Amity, along with all the other factions. And I was telling the truth; I really wasn’t nervous. Sure, I’d find out what faction I could be in, but it’s still my choice. 

“Hope?” My mom says, her voice even softer than usual. Our eyes meet. “It doesn’t matter what faction you get on the test. I need you to promise me you’ll leave.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Please, sweetie.” She touches my cheek with her hand. “I need you to get away from your father.”

I stared at her in a loss for words. “But what about you? I can’t leave you alone with that… that… that monster of a man!”

“Hope. I need to do what’s best for you. Okay? Promise me.”

“I… I promise.” My face felt hot and tears gathered in my eyes. I embraced my mom and she hugged me back. 

And then I heard a door slam open.

I let go of my mom and whipped my head to the side, where I saw Alex facing us.

“Hope, go make yourself useful and make us breakfast.” He demanded. I walked up to him.

“And what if I don’t?” I jutted my chin up, stared him in the eyes, and spit in his face. Without skipping a beat, he punched me in the jaw.

I stumbled back a bit, but regained my balance. I stomped out of my room and Alex followed, but he didn’t say anything. Just walked off back to his room.

When I was sure he couldn’t see me, I winced and put a tender hand up to my jaw. I could feel a bruise forming and immediately starting thinking of excuses. I knocked into a wall, tripped on stairs and hit my face, I fell out of bed. I sighed. Even if I wanted to stay in this faction, I couldn’t. I was too gutsy to. I have no idea why Alex and my father stayed in this faction; there wasn’t a kind bone in their damn bodies. I don’t think there was one in mine either.

About an hour later, my father woke up. He came into the kitchen, where I was making pancakes. He grabbed my butt and I stiffened immediately.

“Please don’t touch me,” I begged, my voice weak and trembling.

“How many times have I told you,” he started and leaned up to my ear, “ I do not want to hear what I can and cannot do from a little girl.”

I saw the heel of his hand go down and I tried to flinch away, but his hand made contact with the back of my head and I let out a low groan. My hand slipped onto the stove and made contact with one of the burners. I shook out my hand but he grabbed my wrist and forced me to turn towards him. Just an hour, I said to myself, just another hour and then I leave for the test. 

“Do not test my patience.” He let go of my wrist and left the room.

The second he left I could feel tension coming off my shoulders, and the steam and rage rise in me. I wanted to hurt him, I wanted him to feel the same things I felt, I wanted to-

“Hope? Are you okay?” My mom came into the kitchen and I just hoped she hadn’t heard anything.

“I never am.” I turned away from her, avoiding any eye contact. “Breakfast is ready.”

I finished eating quickly and ran up the stairs back to my room. I almost never had any free time, but since I was excused from any chores both today and tomorrow, I grabbed my sketchbook and pencil and began drawing. I had been working on something for a few days, but wasn’t too close to finishing it. It was a picture of a girl at the choosing ceremony. She was facing away from the view point. Her long, dark hair was in two French braids and the cut from her hand was dripping blood onto the floor. In her other hand, the knife was clenched tightly by her side. It wasn’t me, I don't know who it was. But this girl, this girl was angry at the universe.

Time flies by along with my pencil. I hear a faint knock on my door and my mother walks in. I drop the pad and pencil and smile at her.

“You have to get to the altitude test soon. Get ready, okay?”

“Okay. I love you.”

“Love you too, sweetheart.”

She closed the door and the sound resonated through my small room. I changed out of my pajamas as quickly as possible and threw on a casual, high necked yellow dress that flowed at the waist and went down to right above my knees. I ran downstairs and made a beeline for the door, grabbing a pair of nude ballet flats on my way. My mom saw me and we both hopped in the car.

We didn’t say much the whole car ride, mostly from nerves. When we finally arrived, we said our goodbyes and I hopped out of the car. When I walked into the building, I saw most of everyone there. The Amity’s were playing a fast paced card game together, the Dauntless were in separate groups together laughing at jokes, the Candor were in a lighthearted debate, the Erudites all read books, and the Abnegation were making small talk together. I sat down with my faction but didn’t say anything. A few smiled and greeted me, but most of the kids ignored me. I looked around the room, trying to observe the other factions. I thought I was the only one who was sitting alone, but then I made eye contact with an Abnegation boy the next table over. Neither of us offered any sort of smile or recognition of each other’s preferences. The boy had close cropped brown hair and dark blue eyes. His lips hung down in a natural frown. I don’t know what compelled me to, but I found myself standing up and walking over to him. The kids from my faction didn’t notice as I walked past them, and only a few Abnegation kids looked up.

“Sorry, do I know you?” The boy said, but there was a softness to his voice.

“No. Sorry, I just- I don’t know, to be honest. The Amity are a bit too soft. I can’t stand them.” The boy laughed and I grinned. “I’m Hope.”  
“Nice to meet you, Hope.”

“You need to get out of your faction too, don’t you?” I asked bluntly.

“Come again?” His brows knit together.

“You need to get out of your faction, right? You have the same look in your eyes.”

The boy looked at me with something- awe, surprise, confusion. “Yeah, you’re right about that.”

A small silence filled the empty space, but somehow, it wasn’t awkward.

“How’d you get that bruise on your jaw?” He asked.

I put a tender hand up to my face. “I never met a curious Stiff before.”

“And I never met an Amity who called an Abnegation a Stiff before.”

I heard another voice, this one female and loud. “Hope Starks and Candice Decker?”

“That me.” I stood up and waved to the boy, not looking back. 

I joined a girl with raven black hair and dark brown eyes who must’ve been Candice. She was from my faction, although we had never met before, as far as I knew. The walk from our tables to the rooms seemed endless.  
“So, are you nervous?” Candice asked.

“Oh, um… I guess a little, yeah. You?”

“I think everyone makes these seem like a lot more than they are. It’s not like we can’t choose any faction we want.”

Before I got a chance to reply, we went into separate rooms.

“Good luck!” She shouted from the room over.


	2. Run Boy Run

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter twooooo lets go, i hope you enjoyed my last one but i guess you did if you clicked this one.

As soon as I walked in, I saw an Abnegation woman standing over the kind of chair you would see in a dentist’s room. There was a table next to the chair with a glass of some sort of clear liquid.

“Hello. Are you Hope Starks?” The woman asked. I nodded. “My name is Natalie Prior. I’ll be overseeing your test today. Why don’t you take a seat?”

I sat down wordlessly. Natalie put electrodes on my forehead, and then on her own. “This is all necessary for the testing.” I nodded like I understood and she continued on. “Drink this.”

She handed me the clear liquid. “What will happen?”

“You’ll have to find out for yourself.” She smiled.

I took the drink, closed my eyes, and drank. When I opened my eyes I was back in the cafeteria. There were two pedestals in front of me, one with a knife and one with a block of cheese. A voice behind me spoke.

“Chose.”

I turned around but there was no one there.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Choose,” the voice said again. 

“What happens if I don’t?”

“Choose.”

“What for?” I crossed my arms.

“Very well.”

I turned back around and the knife and cheese were both gone. Coming into the entrance of the cafeteria was a dog. But this dog looked aggressive and wild. He ran towards me and I panicked. What did I know about dogs? I had no idea. Well, I had one idea. It was just a bad idea. If I curled into a ball under one of the tables, the dog would either not see me as a threat or at least It’d be harder for him to sink his jaws into me. This is only a simulation, I can’t get hurt from it. I heard him running up to me, his long claws scraping on the ground. As I braced for the dog to bite me, I felt a warm, wet lick on my exposed arm. I uncoiled from my fetal position and looked at the dog. How did a bloodthirsty looking dog turn into this lovable creature? I laughed and pet the dog. I heard a high pitched voice coming from the doorway.  
“Doggy!” A little girl. She giggled.  
Suddenly, the dog turned. He started barking and ran towards the girl. At this point I was acting on instinct and adrenaline. I threw myself onto the dog, but before I could feel his thick fur, I fell to the ground. The girl was gone, the dog was gone, and I wasn’t in the cafeteria anymore. I was back in the testing room. I opened the door, expecting to go back to the cafeteria, but instead I am in a moving bus. A man approaches me and points to a picture in the newspaper he is holding. The headline reads, “Brutal Murderer Finally Apprehended!”  
“Do you know this man?” He asks. I think I recognize the man, but I can’t quite place it.  
“I don’t believe I do. What’s it to you?” I reply.i love you. Its oo love you, tobias. 

“If you tell me, you could save me. You could save me!”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know him.” I have a feeling that telling this man who the picture was of would be a terrible idea.

“You’re lying.”

“No, I’m not. I don’t know who the man is. Leave me alone.” It’s all just a simulation.

“I can see it in your eyes. You know him!”

I cross my arms and set my jaw. “I. Do not. Know. This. Man.”

And then everything fades away. I am back in the testing room with Natalie.

“Listen to me,” she says, “I am going to tell you something that you can never repeat. You are someone that we call Divergent. When testing, each simulation rules out two factions. But in some rare cases, like yours, not all factions are ruled out. You were also aware you were under the simulation, correct?”

“Yeah. But I have an aptitude for multiple factions?” I have no idea how to make sense of what she’s saying.

“You have equal aptitudes for both Amity and Dauntless. You can never tell anyone. Being Divergent is very dangerous.”

“I don’t understand. How is this dangerous?”

“I can’t explain it to you now. You should go back home. I’ll put your aptitude in for Amity. Never tell anyone.” She opened a back door. “Good luck tomorrow.”

After the rushed interaction, I decide to walk home. It would take longer for me to get home, and I could stop by at the orchard to relax and think. I notice every crack and bump on the road and zone out. As much as I don't want to, I know my mom is right. I know I had to leave my faction. But how can I do that to her? How can I leave her alone? And if I switch, what faction will I go to? My only obvious options is Dauntless, seeing as I got an aptitude for that as well as Amity. I have to evaluate myself as a person. I think I understand why I got Dauntless; I’ve always stood up for myself, and I hate it when people try to push me around. I think I would do well in Dauntless. I’m definitely not selfless enough for Abnegation. I’ve seen their compound, and everything there is too cookie cutter perfect. I’d be bored. I’m not smart enough for Erudite, and I lie too often for Candor. Soon enough, I reached the orchard. If I left Amity, I think this is what I’d miss the most. Row after row of picture perfect apple trees. The crisp apples, the sweet air, the way the leaves crinkled with the wind. I saw a tree with a wide branch and climbed up. I thought I knew my choice, but what would life be like there? I couldn’t imagine living a different way then I do now. 

It was getting dark, so I started to walk home. Since I didn’t have lunch I was extremely hungry, so I was happy for once to go to the dining hall. The chefs made the most delicious pasta dish on Saturdays, with a light cream sauce. God, I’m delusional from hunger if all I can think about is pasta. I finally reach my house and open the front door. No one was in the living room so I ran up the stairs to my room. My watch read 5:30, which meant dinner would be in half an hour. I continued on my drawing, finally breaking out my colored pencils and adding life to the girl. I wasn’t sure how to depict the sketch: should I add warm, yellow and red colors, or darker shades? My old faction or my soon to be faction? A memory of the past, or a bright glimpse into the future? I decided to leave her as she was, at least for now. I started on a new drawing, just a simple sketch of the Dauntless flames. I finished it in a few minutes and laid down to take a nap with my sketchbook still open on my desk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welp that's its for now! I know it's pretty crappy but I hope the whump levels will be high enough lmao

**Author's Note:**

> so there was chapter one! uhh i hope you enjoyed, and if you did or didn't, i'd really appreciate you leaving a review below because they all mean so much to me <3
> 
> i know this chapter was a little short, i wrote the first few chapters back in 2019 but they should get a little longer soon.


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